


Through the Deep, Dark Valley

by Cervitaur_In_A_Hoodie



Category: Original Work
Genre: Dimension Travel, Dream Travel, Gen, If I figure out how to add tags as I go I will, My First AO3 Post, My OCs, No Smut, horrible half real otherworld, it will pick up as I add more chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27122401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cervitaur_In_A_Hoodie/pseuds/Cervitaur_In_A_Hoodie
Summary: Six people trapped in an interdimensional otherworld get stuck in a feud between a friendly monster and a monster hunter hellbent on revenge.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	1. Through the city

**Author's Note:**

> This whole posting my writing for other people to see thing is new to me, so please judge me harshly. I want to improve.
> 
> (Edit) I have noticed a formatting error in the first few paragraphs. I have not managed to fix it. Sorry
> 
> (Edit) I have fixed the error. Enjoy!

I leapt across a gap I had been eyeing for weeks, caught the edge and hauled myself up. 

  
My friend, Zephyr, jumped across and landed next to me in a neat precision jump, showing me up. _Well no duh,_ I thought. _you’ve been too busy taking naps._  
  
My name’s Ashley. I’m one of the unlucky few that managed to get sucked into the nightmare hellscape that makes up the only way between dimensions. 

  
But we will get to that later. Right now, I'm running from a security guard who caught four tweens (i.e., us) jumping from rooftop to rooftop, and doesn’t seem to understand the concept of parkour.   
  
“You gotta catch me!”   
  
My head snapped back to Jay, our third runner. He was sprinting away from the security guard, right toward the edge of the rooftop that he didn’t have quite enough skill to make on his own.   
  
Zephyr and I reached out our arms as jay sprung from the roof, grabbing his hands as his sneakers hit the side of the brick wall. We pulled him up and he sat there for a second, shaking from adrenaline, before we got up and began running again.   
  
“Thanks guys.” Jay’s voice was trembling a bit, and a glance over my shoulder showed a huge grin.   
  
“LEFT!”   
  
I grabbed the corner of an air conditioning unit and skidded into a turn, catching a glimpse of another security guard climbing a set of stairs to the right.   
  
We ran, hopping over little concrete walls and zigzagging around to lose them.   
  
I thought we were free.   
  
Drew, our fourth runner and sort of leader, came to a sudden stop. Then Zephyr. Then me. We caught Jay before his momentum took him over the edge.   
  
Between us and the next rooftop there was a huge gap, that none of us had a chance of making it over.   
  
“You kids! Stop running!”   
  
A security guard, far away but gaining fast.   
  
“Oh man, this is it. I can’t believe we’re gonna be in juvie at thirteen.” Jay said, on the verge of a nervous breakdown.   
  
Wait! Halfway between the buildings, there was a streetlight! We could jump to it and swing across!   
  
It was still a far jump though, and I couldn’t swing that gap. Not yet. Jay and Zephyr wouldn’t make it either. That just left Drew.   
  
“Hey! I have an idea.”   
  
Drew looked at me, and Jay stopped panicking.   
  
“Let's hear it.”   
  
“Drew, you would jump to that streetlight, hang by your knees, and swing the rest of us across that gap. Then you twist around and swing yourself.”   
  
He nodded and ran to take the jump. The security guard had gotten closer.   
  
A hollow slap rang out as he grabbed the bar, pulling himself up, back facing us before he slid his butt off, gripping with his legs.   
  
Zephyr leapt and grabbed Drew’s hands. They swung and he let go. Zephyr flew, landing perfectly on the other side.   
  
I jumped next, and felt my cold hands grasp his callused ones. I put my legs together and kicked my feet back and forth. It reminded me of the uneven parallel bars I did in gymnastics.   
  
I kicked forward one last time and flew, hitting the ground and rolling.   
  
Jay went next, doing mostly okay. He came away with a scraped knee.   
  
Drew got off the top of the bar and swung across, landing on the other side right as the guard reached where we had been standing.   
  
“Take that!” Yelled Zephyr.   
  
I elbowed him in the ribs.   
  
We ran a couple of buildings away, out of the guard's sight, and ran down a fire escape. My cousin was waiting in her car for us. We clambered in, high off adrenaline and glee from victory.   
  
“I’m guessing it was a good run?”   
  
We all laughed.   
  
—————   
  
We got back to my house after dropping everyone else off. It was just inside the city, in a little suburb where every house looked the same, with beige bricks and a frame roofs and a little oak tree in the front of each yard.   
  
Our house had three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a tiny living room and an even smaller kitchen. My aunt and uncle were staying in the guest room. My cousin slept on the couch, even though I told her that I would take the couch.   
  
They were staying at our house for a couple of weeks, moving across the country after their house had been burned down. Her uncle kept on saying that they wanted to be closer to family, but I think they were just getting away from the wildfires.   
  
My dad was making dinner while our moms talked about mom stuff. Me and Mina, my cousin, were sitting outside.   
  
“And then Zephyr said something to the cop. I don’t remember what.”   
  
“Ha! Sounds eventful.” She took as sip of her soda. “How’d you know that would work?”   
  
I rolled my eyes. “Is this your version of being subtle? Because it's not.”   
  
“You got me.” She said, holding up her hands in mock surrender. “Have you experimented with your… you know…”   
  
“I haven’t done anything with my dream powers yet.”   
  
Mina frowned and knit her eyebrows together. She drank the rest of her soda. I prepared myself for another mini lecture.   
  
“You have superpowers. You know that right? You could be the world's first real superhero. Or supervillain. Whatever floats your boat. You could explore other people's minds for information, like in Inception. You could be the greatest therapist ever! You could even hold in-dream wrestling matches or something, I don’t know.   
  
“What I’m trying to say is that your whole life could be one huge adventure. Why wouldn’t you want that?   
  
We sat in silence, shifting around uncomfortably, avoiding each other's eyes.   
“It sounds like dinners ready.” She paused at the door. “Just… think about it. And tell me what you decide.”   
  
When the door closed, I looked up at the stars. It was early in the evening, so there were only a few and the sky was fading from yellow blue to black.   
  
I did want to do all that stuff she talked about, and I knew it was possible, but I didn’t want to do it right now. I just wanted to go to school and do parkour with my friends.   
  
Sometimes, I just wanted to be normal.   
  
But that was never my choice. I supposed I was destined, I guess, to do something great with my powers. Thats what everyone was telling me at least.   
  
There was no point in waiting around. I had to do this eventually, and better with a friend to watch my back than no one.   
So, I got up and headed inside, looking at the setting sun one last time.   
  
We ate dinner. The parents were watching something on the TV, so we went to my room.   
  
“How are we gonna do this?”   
  
“Well,” I said, “I’m going to go to sleep.”   
  
Mina rolled her eyes. “I mean am I coming in with you?”   
  
“No. I want you to be able to call an ambulance if I stop breathing, or something.”   
  
“One more thing. How will you hear me?”   
  
I blinked. I hadn’t thought of that.   
  
“Just ask if I can hear you. I talk in my sleep sometimes, so you might be able to hear me through that.”   
  
she nodded. I laid down and closed my eyes. There was a moment of darkness, and then the world of my dreams blinked on.   
  
It was a long hallway, only there was no walls or ceiling. Instead, there was a universe, lit up in a million colors shimmering and twisting in front of my eyes. Doors lined the hallway, touching the edge of the dark floor. I knew each one led to a different mind.   
  
A fuzzy voice that came from nowhere and everywhere whispered from the cosmos.   
  
“Can you hear me?” It said.   
  
I realized that it was Mina. I focused on my mouth, my real mouth, and made a connection as best as I could.   
  
“Yes.” I said. “I can hear you.”   
  
“I can hear you too.”   
  
I began walking idly along the pathway.   
  
“What should I do first?”   
  
A moment of silence. Mina was thinking.   
  
“You said you can’t enter minds when they’re awake right? Try entering my mind.”   
  
I found her door easily. I had been to it may times before.   
  
I jiggled the handle, but it was locked. I yanked it. The door didn’t budge. I kicked it like you see people do in movies and fell flat on my butt.   
  
The voice giggled, in an odd parody of my cousins laugh.   
“Well I definitely felt something. Stop trying to force your way in. Maybe knock?”   
  
I rolled my eyes.   
  
Standing up, I knocked gently on the door. It swung open at the soft touch.   
  
I poked my head in, and immediately yanked it out, slamming the door. My face was hot and covered in soot.   
  
“You are not in a good mental state right now.” I said, panting, with my back against the door.   
  
“Yeah, I didn’t think about that. Full of fire?”   
  
“And smoke. What next?”   
  
“Are any of your friends asleep?” 


	2. Over the edge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ashley talks to drew, drew does not take it well, and mina is... there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to get this up! I wrote this and the beginning of next chapter and ended up really hating it, so it ended up sitting in my notes for a long time until my friend (who I think is my only reader right now) helped me get off my ass. Enjoy!

I stood in front of Drew’s door.

“What if he thinks it’s weird? What if I scare him so bad he never sleeps again?”

“I have never met a more dramatic kid.” Mina said from the sky. “Just open the door and get it over with!”

I reached my hand towards the door, but stopped right before touching the handle.

I didn’t know how Drew would react. I mean, I didn’t know how Mina would react either, but that was different. That wasn’t my choice. 

To actually go in someones head and show them what I could do? That terrified me.

“Stop hesitating!” Mina yelled, in that loud voice from everywhere.

“Alright, alright. Jeez. Hey, how’d you even know I was hesitating?”

“Guess I know you too well.” She paused. “You sleep-muttering your thoughts doesn’t hurt either.”

I rolled my eyes and opened the door.

The second I stepped in, I was staring at a six thousand foot drop straight down to the city pavement. And those six thousand feet were rapidly getting smaller.

I attempted to stop panicking and grabbed ahold of the dream, twisting gravity until I was hovering gently in the air instead of falling.

There was a new problem; I couldn’t breathe. I felt towards the real world. A hand over my mouth! I must’ve screamed.

“I can’t breathe!” I yelled. 

Not my brightest idea.

She pressed her hand harder.

My mind was racing, but I couldn’t think. Couldn’t get air.

In a moment of panic, I followed my only instinct.

“Ew! Did you just lick me?”

I breathed in deeply and pulled a cloud around me.

“You just tried to suffocate me, so I think its a fair trade!” I said, definitely not shakily.

“Oh. Uh, sorry about that,” she said. “Look, if you don’t want to do this, then we can just, I dunno, play upside down ping-pong in my dream instead.”

I leaned back in my cloud, mulling it over.

“Nope. I’m already here, and I can’t chicken out now,” I lied, mostly to myself. 

I floated forward and cautiously stuck my head out of the cloud. Eveything seemed to be normal, and I didn’t see Drew anywhere.

About five seconds later, Drew whizzed by about an inch from my face, sending me into a tailspin.

A flying dream. Huh. I kind of thought his would be cryptic, jumbled nonsense.

“Man, I’ve always wanted a flying dream.” Nina said.

About five hundred miles away, give or take, he did the midair equivalent of skidding to a stop. He turned around slowly, and zipped next to me. 

“Ashley?” He said. 

I realized I was not ready for this kind of commitment. 

“Nope! Bye!” I said, and dropped the antigravity, speeding towards the concrete.

Drew’s hand, which was now enormous because he apparently had enough imagination or whatever to make himself a thousand feet tall in five seconds, grabbed me.

Wind whooshed by my face as he brought me to eye level with him.

“Ashley, what are you doing in my dream? No, hang on, how are you in my dream?” 

Oh shit, think fast!

“You’re, uh, dreaming!” What is wrong with me. “Yeah, yeah! I’m just, y’know, a part of your dream! Totally not real at all.”

Giant Drew looked extremely unimpressed. Nina chimed in with a “You’re handling this well,” which I guess Drew couldn’t hear because he didn’t react to the enormous echoing voice of my cousin.

“For fucks sake,” I muttered, dissolving into mist and drifting towards the door.

“Hey, wait! Come back!”

Thankfully Drew was not creative enough to box me in, but he was creative enough to shrink down to normal drew size and fly towards the door, blocking it with his body. 

This wasn’t too much of an issue for me though, as I had left the door open. I just kind of misted around him, and reformed on the other side.

Unfortunately, reforming meant Drew was able to grab my wrist and get yanked out onto the bridge. 

“Wait, he’s on the bridge?” Said Mina, extremely unhelpfully.

“Hey, I heard that!”

“What...” he stood, looking around, “what is this place?”

“Nothing!” I yelled. “It’s nothing! Get back in your brain room!”

“Brain room?” He said, then turned looked back towards the door. “Oh. Oh.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Listen Drew, now that you’ve seen the bridge you can’t just forget this, which is a real shame because this is going horribly. So please, get back in the room and pretend this never happened.”

He stared at me and I watched as he connected the dots, his face twisting to confusion, understanding, denial, and finally settling on anger. 

“Anger isn’t good.” Mina said.

“Have you been reading our minds?”

I probably should’ve anticipated this.

“No?” I said.

“Do you know how creepy that is?” Drew asked. “I have a lot of private stuff in my head! You can’t just go in there, you have to ask!” He punctuated this by shoving me, which was a bad idea since we were on the bridge. The bridge which had no railing or wall or anything to stop one from falling off between the gaps in the doors. The bridge that wasn’t technically a dream, since no one could shapeshift or fly or- well you get the point.

I stumbled back over the edge of the bridge, panicking too hard to notice much else.

“Ashley?” Mina said nervously. “Ashley, your body’s doing something weird. Whats going on?”

I was too focused on being absolutely terrified to answer her. I watched the bridge crumble above me as Drew scrambled for cover, spinning wildly around in something like air.

“Ashley? Ashley, wake u-“ Mina cut off.

Something slammed and meshed into me and sent me flailing again. I caught glimpses of sky and rapidly approaching ground. A few second before I hit, I shut my eyes as tight as I could.

And then there was black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit shorter than the last one because 1. It was only one scene and 2. The next part is where the story actually starts. 
> 
> The reason drew’s character kind of flips when he goes through the door is that when you’re in your dream, you’re kind of... dulled. Like how you would be in a real life dream. But the bridge isn’t a dream, even though ashley gets to it by sleeping. Ask me stuff in the comics!
> 
> Edit: for fucks sake I meant comments.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed! More will be out eventually, hopefully before the end of this month.


End file.
